Saturday, March 19, 2005

OJ managed to convince enough folks in a court of law that he was innocent - framed by the cops. He got away with murder.

Mr. Schiavo managed the same feat.

What makes me so skeptical about Mister Schiavo's CLAIM that his wife would've never wanted to be kept alive in her present condition are two things: (1) he NEVER once mentioned it until AFTER he was awarded nearly ONE MILLION BUCKS for the care of his wife in a trial in which he swore he'd care for her for the rest of her life with the money; and (2) AFTER he got the money (7 years after his wife's "accident") he suddenly remebered her wishes.

HOW EFFING CONVENIENT. HE GETS RID OF HER AND KEEPS THE MONEY!

It is UNDENIABLY true that Mr. Schiavo has something to gain from his wife's passing: THE MONEY! Her parents opnly gain their loved one's life. SO.... WHO DO YOU BELIEVE?!

No matter what the courts have decided I shall always believe that - at thge very least - Mr. Schiavo has acted in bad faith.

This case is also a reminder to EVERYONE that we should all have living wills. This case is a result of Terry Schiavo not having one. If she had had one, then there would be no dispute. Even the Catholic Church recognizes that nobody is required to take every possible intervention to stay alive; they do NOT require that we all opt to use ventillators or feeding tubes. But Terry had none, and now we are asked to believe that she'd rather die than remain alive in her present condition, and we are asked to believe this by a man who has a lot to gain if and when she does die. The same man who has tirelessly worked to see to it that she does die.

THAT'S WHY I DO NOT BELIEVE HIM. I believe her blood relatives have her interests at heart and that her husband does not. And I believe that the courts have let her down - just like they let down OJ's wife.

Friday, March 18, 2005

Hizballah has now officially begun to do in Lebanon and against Arabs what al Qaeda has been doing in Iraq: use terror to try to start a civil war and scare the USA into retreating (so that they can fill the void with neojihadist tyranny):

("Reuters") - A car bomb has exploded in a mainly Christian eastern suburb of Beirut, wounding at least six people and raising fresh fears of a return to Lebanon's violent past. A Reuters correspondent at the scene said the blast early on Saturday destroyed the first floor of an apartment block, blew out windows in surrounding buildings and gouged a large crater in the road. Cars parked nearby were wrecked.

(BBC) - The latest blast took place after midnight (2200 GMT), when the streets of the predominantly Christian area were mostly empty. Windows were shattered several blocks away. "We saw this car just fly into the air and land on the street right in front of us," a witness told Reuters news agency. Car bombs were common during Lebanon's civil war from 1975 until the early 1990s.

We must demand that Hizballah disarm, and if they do not BEFORE THE ELECTION, then we should bomb the crap out of them with Cruise Missiles!

Ukrainian arms dealers smuggled 18 nuclear-capable cruise missiles to Iran and China in 1999-2001, Ukraine's prosecutor-general has said. The Soviet-era Kh-55 missiles - also known as X-55s - have a maximum range of 2,500km (1,550 miles). They are launched by long-range bombers. Official Ukrainian state bodies were not involved in the sales, the prosecutor-general's office said. It added that the missiles were not exported with nuclear warheads. The Kiev Court of Appeals is examining the case, and "a few Ukrainian and Russian citizens are suspects," the statement said. [...] Ukrainian First Deputy Defence Minister Leonid Polyakov said there were no indications yet that any Ukrainian Defence Ministry officials were involved in selling the missiles. And Ukraine's State Export Control Service said it did not authorise any sales of long-range cruise missiles to Iran or China.

These missiles are long-range - AND NUKE-WARHEAD READY!And they were sold during Kuchma's reign of terror.

I WONDER: Could they REALLY have been sold by smugglers unconnected to Kuchma - (Putin's puppet) - and by Kuchma and Kuchma's henchmen without Putin's approval?! I DOUBT IT! It'd be like someone in Iraq selling missiles during Saddam's reign; it would've never happened that way.

YUP: that means that I think that Kuchma and Putin are involved. Don't laugh:

Putin has increased Russia's coziness to China's military; they now have joint training exercises! And Putin has approved ALL the Iran nuke deals.

I bet that the discovery of these long-range missile deals was made possible ONLY because Yuschenko beat the hand-picked successor to Kuchma - Yanukovich.

I SAY: Yuschenko must appoint a new prosecutor and independent investigator, then - if Yuschenko's investigation of the sale of these long-range missiles reveals that Kuchma was indeed involved - we need to seriously consider trade sanctions against the USSR - I mean Putin's Russia.

In fact, what do Linda Ronstadt, Harold Pinter, Scott Ritter, Ted Rall, and George Soros all have in common? The same thing that unites Fidel Castro, the European street, the Iranians, and North Koreans: an evocation of some aspects of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany to deprecate President Bush in connection with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.[...]There is something profoundly immoral for a latte-sipping, upscale Westerner of the postmodern age flippantly evoking Hitler when we think of the countless souls lost to the historical record who were systematically starved and gassed in the factories of death of the Third Reich.[...]The final irony? The president who is most slandered as Hitler will probably prove to be the most zealous advocate of democratic government abroad, the staunchest friend of beleaguered Israel, and the greatest promoter of global individual freedom in our recent memory. In turn, too many of the Left who used to talk about idealism and morality have so often shown themselves mean-spirited, cynical, and without faith in the spiritual power of democracy.

I think VDH nails the PURE IDIOCY and DELUSIONAL INCONGRUITY of the attacks against Bush, but he has failed to properly EMPHASIZE TWO THINGS:

(1) that ALL of the whackos who LUDICROUSLY disparage Bush with Hitlerian references (Linda Ronstadt, Harold Pinter, Scott Ritter, Ted Rall, and George Soros, Fidel Castro, the European street, the Iranians, and North Koreans and the Move.on/Left-wing of the Democrat Party) are committed, unabashed Leftists - folks who advocate socialism to one degree or another; and (2) that Hitler was a socialist!

As VDH points out, it is ironic that the Left accuses Bush of being Hitlerian when he is anything but Hitlerian. I am pointing out that ANOTHER IRONY: the fact that they are ALL MUCH MORE HITLERIAN BECAUSE LIKE HITLER THEY'RE SOCIALISTS! And like Hitler they use THE BIG LIE. And like Hitler they are utopianists and elitists and anti-Zionists.

The Left makes these wild accusations against Bush because they have Bush Derangement Syndrome. The basis of BDS -- (Bush Derangement Syndrome, and the newly coined "Wolfowitz Derangement Syndrome" - H.T.: Roger L. Simon) -- is the Left's unwillingness to accept that their ideology has utterly failed and has been totally discredited more and more ever since 1989, (perhaps from even earlier: perhaps ever since Deng Xiaoping abandoned most of Maoist-Marxist socialism in 1979, and transformed China from a starving basketcase into an economic dynamo). The hateful delusions of the Left are an expression of their COGNITIVE DISSONANCE.

(Other examples of the Left's "CG" and "DENIALISM" include denying that Reagan had anything to do with the "Fall of the Wall" or the collapse of the USSR, and the denial that Bush has anything to do with the fact that freedom and democracy are burgeoning in the Middle East and in the former USSR satellites - when the fact is HE DOES.)

Only after the people on the Left have the courage to admit they were wrong will their delusions and misguided hate-filled attacks against Bush end. HOW DO I KNOW THIS? I was a Leftist, once. Once I saw the light - and admitted that free-markets and democracy are more effective and fair and moral, and that the best guarantor of world peace and the Free World is American military strength - I was able to see the Left for what it was: a false religion.

I recommend that all Leftists just admit the truth; they'll see the light, and I know that they'll find the experience VERY LIBERATING (pun intended!).

TO DISSECTING LEFT READERS: thanks for stopping by! And if you're not reading Dissecting Left regularly (and Jon's other blogs): YOU SHOULD!

"... ran two computer simulations of climate change -- complex programs, ... that took months to run on supercomputers."

CONCLUSION:

"We found that just based on the ingredients that have already been put into the atmosphere in the 20th century, we already are committed to another half a degree (0.5 degree C or 0.9 degree F) of global warming,"... "That's about what we saw in the 20th century. ..."

Which doesn't seem that bad to me; 1901 and 2001 don't look that different to me - in terms of weather. (But they sure do in terms of living standards!)

REMEMBER: the GREENIE/anti-SUV crowd would have you believe that industrialization is bad (because it turns carbon-solids into a carbon-gases) , when in fact industrialization is good, AND GOOD FOR YOU: life spans and health, and standards of living are MUCH better in industrialized countries than in non-developed countries.

THEREFORE: if you want to improve the lives of poor people in the Third World - make them live longer and more prosperously - you need to support MORE industrialization, NOT LESS. China and India are perfect examples of this: they were starving in the middle of the last century, now both are INDUSTRIALIZED economic powerhouses. And they use a lot of energy to do this. I guess the Greenies would rather they were both starving agrarian basketcases!?!?!?!?!

Also, you MUST ALWAYS keep in mind that all these HYSTERICAL PROGNOSTICATIONS are merely COMPUTER GENERATED SCENARIOS, just like the LOCAL 5 DAY FORECAST that you watch from your local weatherman - 5 DAY FORECASTS that are almost always INACCURATE and which must be CONSTANTLY UPDATED.

Last time I checked: (1) a century was further out than five days; and (2) global is a bigger kettle than local. In other words, no matter how many variables they feed into a computer, and no matter how fast that computer runs, what comes out is merely a possible forecast. Let's call it a "100 YEAR GLOBAL FORECAST." It's PROBABLY LESS ACCURATE than your "Local 5 Day Forecast."

Another thing which makes me very skeptical is that the Greenies always present forecasts that mirror their ideology. Wonder why that ALWAYS happens?

ADDENDUM: The bottom-line is that climate change is part of the history of the planet; 35,000 years ago Kilimanjaro had no glacier - and there were NO fossil fuels being burned then. So to assume or argue that fossil fuels are causing it now is NUTS! It might be due to SUNSPOT activity and changes in the SUN; (MORE HERE, and HERE via GREENIE WATCH).

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Presidente Vincente Fox is part of the problem, not part of the solution:

(UPI): Mexican President Vicente Fox has denounced border walls the United States is building to stem illegal immigrants, the Washington Post reports. "No country that is proud of itself should build walls ... it doesn't make any sense," Fox told a Mexico City news conference. "We are convinced that walls don't work." He said it was impossible for Mexico to post military or police patrols along the entire border to prevent crossings. "We can't keep them against their will by force," he said. Last month, the U.S. Congress voted to waive environmental regulations and allow completion of a fence along the border south of San Diego. Fox made the remark in advance of next week's meeting with President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Crawford, Texas, where immigration issues will figure prominently.

Just as Israel had a right to build a wall to keep terrorists OUT, so does the USA. I'D EVEN GO FURTHER: I'd put in LANDMINES along the border; I'd publicize t, and make sure everyone in Mexico KNEW that randomly - in many MANY locations along the border, there are yards and yards of deadly LANDMINES. That'll sure send the right message: "ENTER ILLEGALLY AT YOUR OWN REAL RISK; A RISK OF LOSING LIFE OR LIMB!"

THAT PROBABLY SOUNDS TOO TOUGH, AND TOO CALLOUS FOR YOU BLEEDING-HEART LIBS.

Maybe, but the first and highest responsibility our government has is to protect the homeland. We had to sdo that with a nuclear arsenal during the Cold War, and it's why we're developing NMD, now. And why we should construct a REAL BARRIER and a true physical disincentive to ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, ASAP!

"... as the national assembly's first brief meeting came and went, broadcast into thousands of Iraqi homes on television, a sampling of street opinion in two Iraqi cities found a widespread dismay and even anger that the elections have not yet translated into a new government. "

What the NYTIMES and the naysayers on the Left want to ignore is the FACT that democracy has never been lauded for its efficiency, but for its morality.

Iraq will UNDOUBTEDLY have many MANY long arduous struggles as they evolve an IRAQI democracy and deal with their many MANY problems. Whether or not they solve their problems soon, or well, is NOT THE ISSUE. The mere fact that they can now confront these problems OPENLY and resolve them DEMOCRATICALLY is the issue, and it's why we can declare TOTAL VICTORY.

The rest is up to the Iraqi people. Because I believe that all humans are created equal and that we are all endowed by the Creator with inalienbale rights, I believe they will succeed every bit as well as we have. Which is to say, not without pitfalls: trains are late; a fix for social security seems politically impossible; federal judges can't get confirmed. But these inefficiencies are a small price to pay for FREEDOM.

Folks who think the developed part of the world should just keep pouring money down the black-hole of corrupt tyrannical socialist nations are pretty pissed off that Bush has nominated Wolfowitz to head the WORD BANK.

They should be: Wolfowitz is a TRUE BELIEVER in democracy, transparency and free markets - and a great manager who has been leading the TRANSFORMATION of the Pentagon. Wolfowitz will not countenance continued waste and fraud at the WB or with WB funds, and he will insist that nations receiving aid and loans become freer.

This pisses off the pro-socialist/pro-tyranny Left - who dominate the EU, and America's MSM and academy - as it should: it's ANOTHER NAIL IN THEIR COFFIN!

Wolfowitz is an EXTRAORDINARY man: a great thinker and statesman who has been at the very forefront, spearheading the spread of democracy since his days in the Reagan Administration when he led our efforts at ousting Marcos. And he helped democratize Indonesia. When you add in those he helped liberate in Afghanistan and Iraq, then you have to admit that Wolfowitz has been the principle philosophical tactician - "THE PRICIPLE ARCHITECT" (to use a phrase the Left likes) - of policies and actions which led to the liberation 300 MILLION people. WOW!

Wolfowitz will bring the same zeal for democracy and freedom and transparency to the WORLD BANK, and FINALLY make it an effective institution.

Anatoly Chubais is a leading right-of-center critic and rival of Putin. And like YUKOS' jailed former CEO - Mikhail Khodorkovsky - he's a wealthy man with the means to finance a campaign which could threaten Putin.

Someone tried - BUT FAILED- to ASSASSINATE Chubais this morning by blowing him up as his motorcade drove by - IN OTHER WORDS: IN THE SAME WAY RAFIK HARIRI WAS ASSASSINATED (by agents from a former USSR/KGB client state: SYRIA).

The armed attack on Anatoly Chubais Thursday morning was politically motivated and is not related to his activity as CEO of Unified Energy Systems (UES), said member of the Union of Right Forces political council Boris Nemtsov. "Chubais is a government official, but it is absolutely obvious to me that the attempt on his life is political in its nature, and this is not related to the ongoing reformation of UES," Nemtsov said in an interview with Interfax. Chubais has received threats for years, Nemtsov said. "These threats have been coming from his political enemies," and "many did not feel ashamed to publicly threaten Chubais with reprisals," he said.

In his first comment since the attack, Chubais said he knew who wanted him dead, but did not name them, and refused to be intimidated. "Everything that I have done -- in reforming the country's power sector, and in uniting the country's democratic parties -- I will continue doing, with twice the strength," Chubais said in a one-paragraph statement.

Because of what he's doing in Georgia, and did in with Saddam, and doing in Iran, and tried to do in Ukraine - and what he's doing in Russia - Putin must be watched VERY carefully: he's a "Little Stalin" - and growing rapidly, I fear...

UPDATES:

RIA/NOVOSTI: "'The criminals escaped in the forest and reached the Minskoye highway where a car was waiting for them,' said the source. Reportedly it was a dark Saab. Chubais' motorcade was attacked on Thursday morning when it was leaving the Zhavoronki village not far from the Minskoye highway. The RAO UES chief was not injured. An unidentified explosive device went off between the BMW car with Chubais in it and a Mitsubishi Lancer carrying his bodyguards, a law enforcement source told RIA Novosti."

FOCUS: "... Russian authorities have found the car, used by the attackers of Anatoli Chubais, who escaped after the attempt for his murder, Interfax reported. According to the information, the car found is a green “Saab”. The owner of the car has been ascertained and now police is searching his house. A situation of emergency was declared in seven regions in Moscow in relation to the assassination attempt ..."

UPDATE #2: Welcome Betsy's Page readers! Betsy makes the EXCELLENT contextual point that Yuschenko was ALSO the intended target of an assassination attempt - using dioxin. BUT BY WHOM? Maybe we should have Kofi and the U.N. "investigate" it, like they're "investigating" the Hariri assassination? Heh.

*****UPDATE #3: Ummmm... here's a question: in spy movies, what is the MOST COMMON RANK for an evil KGB agent? YUP: Colonel. SO!? Get this:

(Interfax) - According to one of the investigation's theories, Thursday's assassination attempt on UES CEO Anatoly Chubais may have been organized by a former serviceman, a sabotage operations expert. Law enforcement sources told Interfax that the investigation has determined the license number of the Saab vehicle the attackers allegedly used to escape from the crime scene. As a result, the apartment of the car's owner on Berezhkovskaya Naberezhnaya has been found. "Investigators presume that the attack on Chubais was committed by the husband of the car's owner, a military pensioner and a sabotage operations specialist who was born in 1948," the source said.

(ITAR/TASS):The detained man whose name has not been disclosed yet is a retired colonel of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. ... “The retired colonel was an expert in acts of sabotage and it should not be ruled out that it was he who masterminded the attack on the top manager of the country’s energy company,” sources in the team of investigators said.

I wonder who this "retired" Colonel was working for?? Could it be Vladimir?

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

McCain-Feingold is proving to have opened a Pandora's Box of tyrannical policies.

Commissioners of the FEC are openly talking about REGULATING - (read abridging) - blogs which make some forms of political commentary during the last 60 days of federal elections - (THE MOST IMPORTANT time TO BLOG on elections).

This is a HORRIFYING development.

Here's a solution:

Let's start a movement to AMEND THE CONSTITUTION with an NEW AMENDMENT which would protect NOT ONLY BLOGGERS, but protect ALL SPEECH - very very clearly. I'd word it something like this:

"The government shall make NO laws abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

I guess we just need a SCOTUS that will ENFORCE THE CONSTITUTION! Sheesh! Because they upheld McCain-Feingold, this SCOTUS has given, in effect, more 1st Amendment protections to pornographers than to citizens during elections!

Harvard's faculty of arts and sciences, the same crew that reiterates its ban on the Reserve Officer Training Corps every few years, issued a "no confidence" vote on Harvard President Larry Summers yesterday. William F. Buckley's quip that he'd rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in a Boston phonebook than by the faculty of Harvard has never rung more true.

Chavez - favorite of Castro, Carter, Khatami and Chirac - has started to steal private property in Venezuela:

("Reuters") - Venezuelan on Tuesday defended a plan to seize land from four private farms, including a UK-owned ranch and an eco-tourism reserve, after critics warned the move was illegal and would undermine investor confidence. The government said this week it would confiscate parts of the four farms under left-winger President Hugo Chavez's agrarian reforms to redistribute rural land to the poor.

(VOA) - Venezuelan authorities have said they will redistribute more than 110,000 hectares of privately-held property to landless farmers.

Mugabe of Zimbabwe tried this - and transformed his country from a food exporting nation - the "bread-basket of Africa" - into a starving basketcase! These policies didn't work any better in China or Russia, or any where else they've been tried.

Venezuela tried to overthrow Chavez and have its own "Orange Revolution" a while ago - but then had a referrendum - which Chavez "won" and Carter certified; (Chavez stole'n lied, then Carter swore to it); in fact, though, Chavez no more won that election than Yanukovich won in Ukraine! Thanks Jimmy!

Only after tryrannical Leftists like Mugabe and Castro and Chavez and Kim and Assad and Khatami are thrown out of office will their people's lives improve!

Tonight on the Wolf Blitzer show on CNN at 5PM, Maher said that based on what's happening in the Middle East now Bush's Iraq War was correct, and that he was wrong. I saw him say it with my own shocked eyes. If Maher can admit it, then why can't Teddy Jo Kopechne and Barbara Boxer and the rest of the loony Left?

"Reuters": A photo of Mount Kilimanjaro stripped of its snowcap for the first time in 11,000 years will be used as dramatic testimony for action against global warming as ministers from the world's biggest polluters meet today. Gathering in London on Tuesday for a two-day brainstorming session on the environment agenda of Britain's presidency of the Group of Eight rich nations, the environment and energy ministers from 20 countries will be handed a book containing the stark image of Africa's tallest mountain, among others.

"This is a wake-up call and an unequivocal message that a low-carbon global economy is necessary, achievable and affordable," said Steve Howard of the Climate Group charity which organised the book and an associated exhibition. "We are breaking climate change out of the environment box. This crisis affects all of us. This is a global challenge and we need real leadership to address these major problems -- and these ministers can give that leadership," he told Reuters.

The pictures include one of Kilimanjaro almost bare of its icecap because of global warming, and coastal defences in the Marshall Islands threatened with swamping from rising sea levels.

... reports of glacial recession on Kilimanjaro first emerged in 2002, the story was quickly picked up and trumpeted as another example of humans destroying nature. It's easy to see why: Ice fields in the tropics—Kilimanjaro lies about 220 miles (350 kilometers) south of the Equator—are particularly susceptible to climate change, and even the slightest temperature fluctuation can have devastating effects.

"There's a tendency for people to take this temperature increase and draw quick conclusions, which is a mistake," said Douglas R. Hardy, a climatologist at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, who monitored Kilimanjaro's glaciers from mountaintop weather stations since 2000. "The real explanations are much more complex. Global warming plays a part, but a variety of factors are really involved."

According to Hardy, forest reduction in the areas surrounding Kilimanjaro, and not global warming, might be the strongest human influence on glacial recession.

"Clearing for agriculture and forest fires—often caused by honey collectors trying to smoke bees out of their hives—have greatly reduced the surrounding forests," he says. The loss of foliage causes less moisture to be pumped into the atmosphere, leading to reduced cloud cover and precipitation and increased solar radiation and glacial evaporation.

Evidence of glacial recession on Kilimanjaro is often dated from 1912, but most scientists believe tropical glaciers began receding as early as the 1850s.

Stefan L. Hastenrath, a professor of atmospheric studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has found clues in local reports of a dramatic drop in East African lake levels after 1880. Lake evaporation indicates a decrease in precipitation and cloudiness around Kilimanjaro.

"Less cloud coverage lets more sunlight filter through and hit the glaciers," Hastenrath said. "That increase in sunlight then provides more energy for evaporation of the glacier."

Hastenrath found further evidence in sailing expedition reports from the same period. "Ships along the East African coast recorded very fast equatorial winds around 1880," he said. "Just like today, swift westerlies are always linked with drier seasons in East Africa, so it's very likely Kilimanjaro had a dry period around this time."

Along with a higher risk of evaporation, a drop in precipitation also makes for a dark glacial surface, made up of old, dirty snow. A darker glacial surface absorbs more solar radiation than fresh, white snow (like a blacktop playground baking in the sun).

Global warming began to take effect in East Africa by the early 20th century.

FACTS IN SUMMARY:

(1) The current recession of Mt. Kilimajaro's glacier began a CENTURY BEFORE fossil fuel use became global.

(2) The current recession of Mt. Kilimanjaro's glacier is the result of LOCAL activities which can be addressed locally - and have NOTHING to do with use of fossil fuels in other parts of the world.

(3) The current recession of Mt. Kilimanjaro's glacier is also effected by regional wind current patterns and local cloud cover - and NOT CLIMATIC CHANGES OR GLOBAL WARMING.

(4) The "Greenies" ADMIT that Mt. Kilimanjaro was GLACIER FREE 11,000 YEARS ago; WELL... there were NO SUV's then, and NO man-made "greenhouse gases" to cause this; therefore, asserting that "greenhouse gases" are causing it now is HIGHLY SUSPECT.

THEREFORE: it is OBVIOUS that KYOTO is a COLOSSAL WASTE, a MASSIVE DIVERSION of valuable resources which could be better spent in ways that would more directly and quickly SAVE AND IMPROVE the lives or more people in the Third World who are currently suffering as a result of REAL ENVIRONMENTAL THREATS - like dirty water, and water borne diseases.

Instead of shackling our First World's industrial base (the world's money-making/wealth-generating machine) with WORTHLESS "GREEN" laws, we should be be building water treatment plants in the Third World and begin spraying large areas with DDT.

That is, if we REALLY want to help improve the lives of HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of people.

I have the feeling the GREENIES relentless and irrational attachment to KYOTO and against "fossil fuels" has more to do with making themselves feel good, than improving the lives of anyone.

UPDATE: Welcome SHAKING SPEARS readers - and if you're not one yet, you should be EVERYDAY!

UPDATE #2: Welcome BETSY'S PAGE readers! As long as you're here, why not check out a few other posts. BY THE WAY: if you're not reading Betsy everday - at least once - then you're missing the best news and commentary round up in the blogosphere.

Monday, March 14, 2005

This news must REALLY PISS-OFF and DISAPPOINT the Left. Only last week, most of the talking heads on the Left were palpably RELIEVED that Hizballah had STAGED a big anti-American protest. Hell, the Leftists had promptly started wagging their "I told you the Bush Doctrine wouldn't work" fingers in our neo-con faces. IN FACT: the MSM Lefties were ALL OVER the Sunday Talk Shows yesterday saying that Hizballah had proven that they were also "politcal party" that had to be taken seriously!

YEAH RIGHT! Bush - who has just put Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein - the "political wing" of the terrorist group the IRA - on the persona non grata list, is certainly never EVER going to alllow ANYONE in his administration to have a tete-tete with Nasrallah or anyone else in Hizballah - that would be like negotiating with al Qaeda!

Today's reports will upset the Left because they PROVE that today's anti-Hizballah, anti-Syria, anti-neojihadist, anti-baathist protest - and PRO-AMERICAN RALLY - is the biggest one BIGGEST YET! ---

Nearly two million people from different regions of Lebanon have gathered in the capital Beirut for protests organized by the opposition party. Members of the press located in the protest region have reported that the protestors are arriving in Beirut by car, ship, and even on foot in preparation for the largest meeting since the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri on Feb. 14.

Angry Lebanese demanded an international investigation into Hariri's killing and a complete and swift Syrian pullout of its troops and intelligence forces, after a nearly 30-year military presence in its tiny neighbor. Apart from the vast sea of opposition protesters in the square, steady flows of people could be seen pouring from all corners of the city, and all kinds of vehicles were bringing in large influx of people from across the country. Estimates of the number of protesters varied from 1 million to 300,000.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Mar 14, 2005 — Hundreds of thousands of anti-Syrian demonstrators flooded the capital Monday in the biggest protest ever in Lebanon, surpassing the turnout for an earlier pro-Damascus rally organized by the Islamic militant Hezbollah. In a show of national unity, Sunnis, Druse and Christians packed Martyrs' Square as brass bands played and balloons soared skyward. The rally, perhaps the biggest anti-government demonstration ever staged in the Arab world, was the opposition's bid to regain momentum after two serious blows: the reinstatement of the pro-Syrian prime minister and a huge rally last week by the Shiite group Hezbollah. Protesters some bused in from across Lebanon jammed Martyrs' Square and spilled into nearby streets. They chanted, sang and shouted in a mix of the Arabic accents of the country's regions, demanding Syrian troops depart and that their government be purged of Damascus' influence.

The turnout was broader than earlier opposition protests, with more Sunni Muslims in particular joining the Christians and Druse who have formed the bulk of past anti-Syrian rallies. Even some Shiites joined in.

Saudi Arabia called on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to raise production to meet an expected increase in demand later this year. OPEC, the producer of 40 percent of the world's oil, should boost its oil quota by 500,000 barrels a day, or 1.9 percent, to 27.5 million a day, said Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi, in a faxed statement today. Iran's oil minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, told reporters earlier in Isfahan, Iran, that no change in supply was needed.

Evidently, Saudi Arabia and OPEC think that 500,000 barrels P/D is a lot of oil. But "greenies" think that the estimated 1,000,000 barrels P/D that ANWR will produce is a pittance! (I wonder if 1,000,000 barrels P/D was spilled on a beach near Malibu if the "greenies" would think it was a pittance then!?!?) MY POINT? ONE MILLION BARRELS PER DAY IS NOTHING TO SNEEZE AT.

World demand is outstripping world supply - that's why oil prices are so high. To make oil cheaper, we need to increase supply by extracting more - and REFINING MORE. Right now USA refining capacity is too low; we haven't built any additional refining capacity in three decades.

Do you think the "greenies" will permit us to do that, either? NOT without a fight!

The "greenies" - the anti-ANWR oil crowd - are irrational: they think that plentiful oil is bad and "free" caribou good.

They're also generally disdainful of industrialization - as if it (along with capitalism) was somehow harmful to human life. I suggest that whenever you hear this irrational rant from a "greenie" that you point out to them that life spans, standard of living, and the health of humans in industrially developed nations is much MUCH better than for those humans who live in the "pristine" Amazon or "pristine" African bush - who are generally more sickly, poorer and live shorter lives than urban industrialized people.

What these poor, short-lived and often sick people need is MORE INDUSTRIALIZATION, not less. What the developed nations should be doing is building oil refineries all over the African coast-line! It would create jobs, grow their GDP, pay for water treatment plants (and for DDT to wipe out malaria - the single biggest disease in Africa -- one that DWARFS HIV), increase the standard of living, lead to better housing and healthcare. And we could ship ANWR-oil there to be refined, too!

...that was a result of the anti-terror barrier which Israel built on occupied land.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday the United Nations is establishing a register of property damage caused by Israel's West Bank separation barrier, as hundreds of Palestinians protested the barrier outside the walled Palestinian government compound where he spoke.

This SO SO so so SO SO SO SO SO very VERY important that Kofi himself is addressing it on his visit to Abbas in Ramallah. YUP: it's too important to leave it to KOJO or BENON!

Do you think that the UN will ever assess and register the property and personal injury damage that came as a result of ARAB TERROR against Jews and Israelis!?

Putin's second term is up in 2008. He's made noise about running again. If he did, he might win, because there isn't really a BIG-NAME, opposition leader to oppose him (if he seeks reelection) - or to oppose his machine if Putin seeks to put up a crony. Well, until now, that is... now Russia's chess hero - Garry Kasparov has said all but thrown his hat into the ring:

Mr Kasparov is already chairman of the opposition body Committee 2008, a group of liberals fighting to halt Russia's slide to autocracy and to ensure that Mr Putin resigns when his second term in office ends in three years. [...] Mr Kasparov has become one of the most outspoken critics of the Putin regime on the international circuit, lambasting its decision to clamp down on the media and its stranglehold over the courts and parliament. [...] In comments published on the website of the Russian weekly journal Yezhednevny Zhurnal, he said: "In chess I have done all I could and even more. Now I intend to use my intellect and strategic thinking in Russian politics. "I will do all I can to oppose Putin's dictatorship. "It is very hard to play for a country with undemocratic authorities. I will be tackling this problem with those who hold Russia dear and care about it." Mr Kasparov, 41, has dominated international chess tournaments since becoming world champion at the age of 22.

Kasparov says Russia under President Vladimir Putin is moving in the wrong direction. At the group's launch last year he spoke of what he said was the growing threat to democracy. "We see a clear danger, a clear and present danger, for the current constitution, for our democratic rights and that is why we are bringing [together] all different people, citizens, on the basis of our citizenship, that believe in democracy as an institution," Kasparov said.

This sounds good to me. Perhaps Putin has met his match. Kasparov is still ranked #1 in the world. In chess that is.

This Oath was amended during the U.S. Civil War to include loyalty to the United States of America.The Oath now stands as follows:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

No Senator swears an oath to uphold Senate rules.

Repeat: NO SENATOR SWEARS TO UPHOLD SENATE RULES.

NOT ONLY does the US Constitution trump Senate rules, BUT EVERY U.S. Senator has a compulsory duty and PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY to see to it that the U.S. Constitution is upheld.

I assert that - IN THE CASE OF JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS - the Senate's filibuster rule - now set at 60 to end debate, (but not too long ago set at 67) - is UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND VIOLATES THE SENATE'S OATH OF OFFICE.

Here's why the Senate cloture rule - as it relates to judicial appointments - violates the US Constitution: The Constitution specifically states that the Senate shall confirm judges; CONFIRMATION HAS ALWAYS BEEN BY A SIMPLE MAJORITY: 50% + 1. WHY? Here's why:

THEREFORE, Frist MUST see to it that the Senate nullifies the Senate cloture rule as it relates to judical nominees; (he can do this with a simple majority vote). Frist violates his OATH OF OFFICE if he does NOT do this.

During the final moments of his appearance on THE OREILLY FACTOR (FOX NEWS, 3/11), Michael Scheuer [ (a) the former CIA honcho in charge of the CIA's anti-Bin Laden unit from the time of the Clinton Administration until he retired a few months ago - AND (b)a Bush critic who authored the anti-Bush book: IMPERIAL HUBRIS], said (paraphrasing):

that RENDITION was "the SINGLE MOST EFFECTIVE tool that the USA had in the GWOT," and that any claim - and specifically the LATIMES claim - that the policy had yielded no useful; information was "INSANE."

... both Mr. Clinton and George W. Bush. In my mind [...]made the right decision - America is better protected because of renditions - [...] the rendition program has been a tremendous success. Dozens of senior Qaeda fighters are today behind bars, no longer able to plot or participate in attacks. Detainee operations also netted an untold number of computers and documents that increased our knowledge of Al Qaeda's makeup and plans. [...] All Americans owe a debt of gratitude to the men and women of the agency who executed these residentially requested and approved operations, often at the risk of their lives.

The rendition controversy followed a well-established pattern by the Left-wing and the Old Media they dominate: They attack Bush for doing what previous Democrat presidents did WITHOUT CRITICISM (and sometimes did with their PRAISE!) and also ignore the fact that the action in question is effective and in our national security interest.

The Left does this over-and-over again:

(1) Clinton was cool for ordering "Operation Desert Fox" against Saddam's WMD - WITHOUT Congressional, NATO or UN approval, but Bush lied about the WMD and is a war criminal for liberating Iraq without UN approval.

(2) Clinton was a hero for liberating Kosovo and deposing Milosevic (again without UN approval) - even though Milosevic presented no threat to USA security, (especially as compared to Saddam), but Bush is evil because liberating Iraq was never what he REALLY wanted; he only wanted Iraq's oil. And Leftists also charge that Bush never argued that Saddam had to go because he was a tyrant; Leftists falsely charge that Bush's neo-con rationalization that we need to democratize the Middle East is post facto. (Which is why we called it OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM, right?!?!?)

Well, the list of hypocritical, false charges the Left has made and still makes against Bush is endless. (You can add your own in "comments " if you want.)

ONE THING IS CLEAR: the Left is the major reactionary force in the world today - whether the issue is the GWOT, or trade and globalization, or Social Security. The sooner the Left is totally marginalized the sooner we make unlimited poltical progress on all fronts.

HOW WILL THIS HAPPEN?

Well, the Left will do it to themselves: As the MOVE ON types - and their DEANIAC cohorts - take over the Democrat Party, they will force it more and more to the extreme Left and the WHACKO margins of every issue. This will shrink Blue America and enlarge Red America.

It won't matter how much money they raise and spend; if the Democrats continue to move leftward they will - (as Zell Miller proclaimed in his book, A NATIONAL PARTY NO MORE) - disappear from the national political stage.

GOOD RIDDANCE.

**** UPDATE - 3/14: WELCOME JAWA REPORT READERS! Please check out a few other posts. And: if you're not a JAWA REPORT reader - you should be; JAWA is "GWOT and SGRENA Central."